Probation officers and child protection experts voiced concerns last night after it emerged that a so-called Sarah’s Law would be piloted in three areas.

Parents and teachers will be able to access information about sex offenders in their neighbourhoods as part of a pilot scheme to be announced by John Reid, the Home Secretary, next month. Single mothers will be able to ask police about the risk posed by new partners, and headteachers will be told about dangerous offenders in their communities.

The pilots are expected to begin this year. One scheme will operate in Wansdyke, northeast Somerset.

Sara Payne, the mother of the murdered schoolgirl Sarah, who has campaigned for a British equivalent of the American Megan's Law, welcomed the news.

Dan Norris, the Labour MP for Wansdyke, said that the changes had huge potential benefits, and could be in place nationally by the end of next year. He said that parents would be educated about child safety to help them to assess accurately the new information, and that it would be made “as difficult as possible” for people to abuse it.

Harry Fletcher, deputy general-secretary of the National Association of Probation Officers, said that it appeared that the Government was “pandering to a tabloid agenda”.

He said: “Thankfully, stranger attacks are very rare, therefore unnamed information is not going to be of much value. If a person is named, the risk is extremely high that they will abscond and be harder than ever before to track.”

John Coughlan, joint president of the Association of Directors of Children’s Services, expressed reservations about the possibility of vigilan-te action, and gave warning that disclosure of police intelligence could generate a false sense of security by focusing attention on known offenders.

A spokesman for the Police Federation welcomed the news but said that any new law “must not encourage parents to take the law into their own hands”.

Michelle Elliott, of the children’s charity Kidscape, described as “intelligent” the decision to focus on providing information to teachers and lone parents, because the latter could be a particular target.

Law created on wave of revulsion

— Megan’s Law was introduced in the US after the death of Megan Kanka, seven, who was raped and killed by a convicted paedophile in New Jersey in 1994

— The huge public outcry spawned a raft of legislation, signed by President Clinton, later adopted in various forms across 50 states

— The law allowed public access to information about high risk offenders, which supporters say has been a valuable deterrent A number of states list offenders’ details on the internet, allowing parents to enter their own details to check if anyone on the register lives nearby

— In Britain the News of the World newspaper has run a lengthy campaign to introduce similar legislation since eight-year-old Sarah Payne was killed in 2000

— It gathered pace when it emerged that her killer, Roy Whiting, committed a similar offence in 1995

Explore Law

• Columnists

• Law Panel

• Law Reports

• Student Law

Times Recommends

• BGC 'set aside £40m to lure Tullett brokers'
• Legal aid review to ensure value
• Fears as 21 magistrates' courts face closure